For years, vehicle-washing services have been used by consumers to clean the external surfaces of vehicles as they are driven or conveyed through automatic carwashes. Due to advances in technology, optional features that were once manually applied have been integrated into automatic carwash systems. More specifically, tire-shining options that once required an attendant are today automatically applied with elongated rotary brushes or sponges as an optional stage in the carwash process.
Commonly, motorized rotary brushes are moved into contact with lower tire sidewalls of a conveying vehicle as shiner product is sprayed onto the rotating brush and/or directly onto the tires. While the rotational motion of the brush allows the sidewalls of the tires to, be further cleared of debris and shined, the shiner fluid is often misappropriated to the wheel or body of the vehicle. The corrosive or unattractive appearance of tire shiner applied to unintended surfaces detracts from the beneficial qualities gained by the automatic addition.
Having single spray nozzles spaced behind the brush or aimed toward the vehicles tire, dry spots often occur in the rotary brushes in which rinsing before each use is required to removed dried cleaner from the rotary brush. When brush dryness occurs, the amount of friction between the tire and brush increases, resulting in premature wear and poor appearance of the final product. However, rinsing the brush is only marginally effective in removing dried tire shiner and the saturation of the brush with water makes the adherence of newly introduced tire shiner difficult and results in a diluted shiner solution having less than optimal results.
Further limitations pertain to excess waste and misappropriation of tire shiner fluid during the tire-shining phase. In the past, excess solution loss from the tire shiner process was considered an unavoidable loss, which resulted in a combination of lost proceeds, higher consumer costs and potential environmental concerns. Additionally, excess fluid lost in the spray mist or discharged from the rotary brush due to centrifugal force and the rinsing cycle create excess waste product application on unwanted surfaced. Therefore, a current need for a tire shiner device that is both precise in application and prevents excess waste exists in the art.